Sundance 2023: Luca Guadagnino to receive International Icon Award at Opening Night: A Taste of Sundance

Today the nonprofit Sundance Institute announced that Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Luca Guadagnino will receive the International Icon Award at Opening Night: A Taste of Sundance presented by IMDbPro on January 19 in Park City. Guadagnino will join previously announced honorees of the evening, Ryan Coogler, W. Kamau Bell, and Nikyatu Jusu. The 2023 Sundance Film Festival will take place January 19–29, 2023, in person in Park City, Salt Lake City, and the Sundance Resort, along with a selection of films available online across the country January 24–29, 2023.

The Award recognizes an international auteur who creates distinctive cinematic universes and has made a lasting impact on filmmaking, most notably through a commitment to storytelling and an unwavering creative vision. Guadagnino is the writer, director, and producer of several celebrated films who most recently directed Bones and All. He has strong roots in the Sundance community going back over a decade. He made his Sundance debut at the 2010 Festival with his film I Am Love, which he wrote, directed, and produced. In 2017, Guadagnino made his return to the Festival with the premiere of his Academy Award-winning film, Call Me By Your Name, starring Timothée Chalamet. Guadagnino also produced the documentary The Truffle Hunters, which played at the Festival in 2020. He has won and been nominated for several awards, including Venice Film Festival, Golden Lion BAFTA Award for Best Direction, and Nastro d’Argento for Best Director.

“Luca Guadagnino is a true visionary of cinema and we are thrilled to honor him with this special award,” said Joana Vicente, Sundance Institute CEO. “Whether it’s with writing, directing, or producing, he has had an undeniable impact, not only on the Sundance Film Festival community, but the film industry as a whole with his unique storytelling abilities.”

“Sundance has always felt like home for me; I have been to the festival four times,” said Luca Guadagnino. “I particularly remember how warmly the festival received Call Me By Your Name and how that changed my life. I couldn’t be more thrilled to be honored to be receiving this award.”

Opening Night: A Taste of Sundance presented by IMDbPro will kick off the 2023 Sundance Film Festival by honoring inspiring and breakout storytellers whose journeys have been connected to Sundance throughout the years while raising funds and awareness for the Institute. Proceeds raised will be used to support the Institute’s year-round work uplifting global independent voices, both new and established, through artist programs, granting, and other initiatives. The event is also made possible with the generous support of George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, Acura, and Variety. The Sundance Film Festival runs from January 19-29, 2023.

Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images for RFF

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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